Chapter Eight
DARCY
Rolling over onto my side, I grip my pillow tighter and count a few dozen sheep. They frolic in the imaginary pasture and jump over fences, but they don’t help me sleep. Groaning, I open my eyes and stare up at the ceiling. The room is dark, and the faint sounds of traffic can be heard outside.
I don’t know how long I sat on Linc’s lap, feeling his strong arms around me. Feeling wanted for the first time in a decade.
I need you, Darcy.
I need you for so much more.
Something inside me broke at his fierce words.
It was like all the walls holding me together cracked and crumbled, leaving me feeling exposed, and yet seen.
Needed. I was afraid to trust that feeling.
Still am, honestly. But Linc’s protective nature makes me hope that he’s not the kind of man that would deliberately hurt me.
I think… I think he’s a man I can trust with my heart.
Would he ever risk his in return? Or is it too late for me?
Maybe I gave it to him in the living room while he cradled me in his lap. My throat catches at the thought. I swallow hard but it doesn’t help. I need some water, and to walk off some of this restless energy.
Rising from the bed, I put on my bunny slippers, and shuffle downstairs.
The house is dark and silent. I’m just stepping off the last stair when movement in the living room makes my heart stop.
I freeze, peering through the darkness. A shadow moves by the window, the streetlamp outside revealing a tall frame and broad shoulders I know well.
“Couldn’t sleep?” I ask Linc from the doorway to the living room.
He turns and the dim light washes over one cheek and a bare shoulder.
He’s shirtless, with dark pants hanging low on his hips.
Every ridge of his stomach is outlined with light and shadow, colorful tattoos spreading across his chest and down both arms. In the dim light of the window, I can just make out a warrior—maybe a centurion?
—above his heart. It’s suits the protective man I’ve come to know.
The warrior’s red cape stretches up to Linc’s shoulder, where it wraps around his arm, mingling with images and words I can’t make out.
He’s strength, power, and protection all rolled into a delicious package that makes me thirsty on a whole other level.
Tension seems to simmer in the air between us.
“You either.” His husky voice makes me shiver. Heat surges through my body, tightening my nipples.
I edge closer.
Linc waits for me in the darkness, his wolfish gaze on me, roaming down my body. His eyes are hooded, obscured in shadows, but I feel the weight of his regard like a physical touch. It’s heady.
God help me, I want it. All of it. I want him.
He holds out his hand. I hesitate half a heartbeat before placing my hand in his. He pulls me flush against his body. The heat of his skin sinks beneath my thin tank top.
Linc lets out a soft breath at the contact. Then his hands are on my back, anchoring me to him. One palm slides up into my hair and the other down to cup my ass and press my hips to his.
“Feel that?” he murmurs, rocking his hard cock against me. Even through the thin layers of fabric, it’s hard to ignore the length and feel of him.
“Yesss.” I push closer, winding my arms around his neck to pull him down for a kiss.
Our lips brush in the lightest touch and his woodsy scent fills my senses.
“That’s what you do to me,” he says against my mouth. “Why I can’t sleep.”
I press another soft kiss to his lips, then move his hand from my backside to my breast. His palm rubs over my hard nipple, sending another wave of wetness between my thighs. “Feel what you do to me, Lincoln Wolf.”
His palm closes around my full breast. He growls low in his throat then kisses me hard. Our tongues twine, stroking, and he nips my lower lip, then dives back for more. Harder, hotter, each kiss driving the pleasure higher.
He fists his hand in my hair and pulls my head back, exposing my throat and licks my skin, teeth gently scraping as he works his way down.
Pleasure coils deep inside my core. I want his hands and his mouth everywhere. Here, in the darkness where it’s just us, I want to explore all the things I’ve been too afraid to feel in the light. “More,” I murmur.
Linc palms the back of my thighs and lifts me up, wrapping my legs around his waist as he takes my mouth in another hard kiss. He moves us to the couch, laying me down on the soft cushions and covering me with his hard body.
I’ve never felt anything like the weight of him pressing me down. My hips buck against his, rubbing my center over his hard cock. The friction hits right where I need him, making me moan.
“Tell me to stop, sweetheart. Tell me now or I’m going to taste every part of you. I’ll lick you until you beg me to fuck you.”
“I’ll beg now.” Just the thought of Linc pushing deep inside my body makes me quiver.
A laugh rumbles out of him, vibrating against my belly. I will never get enough of that sound.
“You should laugh more,” I tell him as I nip his chin, then kiss his neck, feeling the stubble beneath my lips. I like the rough scrape.
Linc raises up on one arm, breaking the contact to look down at me. “Say you’ll be mine, and I will.”
His words sink deep in my heart, settling a little more of my fears. I cup his cheek and meet his eyes. He means it. Maybe it’s only for now, maybe this won’t last. Right now, it’s enough. “I’m yours.”
“Thank fuck.” Linc kisses me hard. His hand slips beneath the hem of my shirt to trace my skin. “Need to feel you,” he murmurs against my lips.
“Yes. Touch me, Linc.”
He leans back enough to slip the tank top over my head, then his hands are on me, smoothing over my stomach, my ribs, and up to cup my breasts. “Damn. So fucking beautiful.”
The reverence in his tone makes me melt. I trace the ink on his arms and over his chest.
Linc circles his thumb around one of my nipples, bringing it to a hard peak, then bends his head and sucks it into his mouth.
Pleasure arrows from my nipple straight to my core, making my back arch. He murmurs his approval and switches to the other, sucking first one breast then the other, back and forth until I’m rocking against him, begging without words for more.
“You need something from me, sweetheart?” he whispers against my neck, grinding his cock where I need him most.
“Y-yes.”
“Tell me. I want to hear you say it.” He tucks a hand beneath my hips, pulling me closer as he thrusts against me.
The thin fabric of his sleep pants and my pajama shorts move with him, simultaneously adding a different kind of friction and irritating me because I want them gone. I tug at his pants. “I want to feel you against me.”
He gives me a dark chuckle and lowers himself until our bodies touch from shoulder to hips. “Like this?”
I can’t hold back my breathy sigh as the light hair on his chest brushes against my nipples. I want that and so much more. “Yes. Also, your mouth, your hands. Touch me,” I order him. “Taste me like you said you would.”
“My pleasure, love.” Linc sucks one of my breasts back into his mouth and works my shorts over my hips, leaving my body bare to him.
He raises up on one hand, looking down the length of my body. His other hand follows, skimming my skin as if he’s afraid to touch, afraid to break the spell between us.
I capture his wrist, guiding his hand down between my thighs.
Those dark emerald eyes glitter when they meet mine. He watches me close as he cups my pussy, slowly sliding his fingers through my folds. “That’s it. Show me what you want.”
I rock my hips against his hand, putting it where I need him. “Here.”
Linc’s thumb finds my clit, circling it while his fingers dance across my slick skin, bringing me higher.
It’s everything and not enough. I’m trembling, getting close, gripping his shoulders because it feels like I’m about to fly apart.
Linc lets out another rough growl, then pulls away. I make a needy noise of protest, but he slides down my body, wedges his shoulders between my thighs and lowers his head to my folds.
I bite my lip to hold back my cry at the first touch of his hot tongue. Linc licks me like his favorite dessert, holding me open to his exploration. It’s so intense, hard sweeps of his tongue mixed with gentle, pausing to suck my clit until I’m squirming beneath him.
He clamps one arm over my hips to hold me in place, chuckling against my skin. “You’re mine now, sweetheart. You’re only allowed to feel.”
I feel his thick finger tease my entrance, then slide inside. My body coils tighter than I’ve ever felt. “Too much.”
“Not enough,” he counters. “Let go. Come for me. Let me taste you as I promised.”
I shake my head ‘no’, but it’s too late.
With one last lick, he latches his mouth onto my clit and sucks until my body releases on its own.
Waves rush over me, pulling me under. I’m barely aware of Linc’s praises with the blood rushing in my ears.
As the pleasure begins to ebb, he pushes me higher again, and then again.
“That’s it, my love. Give it to me.” He takes it all, eyes intense as he watches me.
When I can finally breathe again, he places a kiss on each thigh and slips his hand from my folds. Gathering me against him, he shifts to the side, pulling me with him until I’m half draped over him on the couch.
“I’m dead,” I inform him.
He laughs. “Then I will have to figure out how to bring you back to life, because I’m not done with you or your body.”
My heart thumps a little harder and a smile tugs at my lips. “I’m not done with you either.” I want to see his beautiful body and show him the same pleasure he just gave me. I might not have done this before, but the internet is a good teacher, and I’ve studied.
Linc cups my cheek and draws me to him for a kiss. I taste myself on his lips, and it’s sexier than I thought it would be.
“Think you can sleep now?” he asks when we break apart for air.
“Now?” We’re done?